


Housecat

by MiraculousTrash (AdriannaRhode)



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Reveal Fic, adrien gets akumatized, almost entirely adrien's sassy internal monologue, angsty teenagers, cat cuddling, marinette is adorable as always, plagg is actually helpful for once, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-10
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 02:37:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5691466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdriannaRhode/pseuds/MiraculousTrash
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He knew what was supposed to happen when someone was possessed by a dark-magic butterfly. And turning completely and utterly into a real-life black cat was not exactly what he had expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I just want to mother Adrien and Marinette constantly. Like, are they warm enough? Do they want a snack? Someone help, they're so impossibly cute.
> 
> This was from a prompt. It will be several parts. Enjoy!

Akumas were NOT supposed to work this way.

Adrien had fought enough of them, he knew what was supposed to happen when someone was possessed by a dark-magic butterfly. And turning completely and utterly into a real-life black cat was not exactly what he had expected.

True, he had been on the front step of his house brooding about his father and his social life and his general awful luck when the damned thing came for him. Also true, Plagg had launched himself at the akuma in a shocking and mostly unnecessary effort to spare Adrien the evil transformation. Adrien’s best guess was that somehow Plagg’s magic and the akuma’s magic had worked together to give him this overzealous version of his usual superpowered form.

So now he was literally a chat noir. A black kitty with four paws and a tail and whiskers , and a human mind trapped inside still thinking his normal Adrien thoughts.

And he couldn’t even make puns about it.

A pity, that. But there was no time to grieve. He had been walking around Paris for the last ten minutes, trying desperately to find someone who could understand that he wasn’t a cat. Not a real cat. He was a human…a cat superhero, sure, but not a real cat. 

On second thought, nobody would understand that.

It could have been worse, though. Adrien liked cats. He could do this.

He trotted around some street corner, following his nose more than anything else as he was lost in thought. He smelled something great, see. It was cookies, he figured, warm cookies that smelled good even to his new cat nose. 

As he came closer, he could see it was a bakery. A really cute bakery with picture windows and lots of people inside. It was also a very familiar bakery, and he could not for the nine lives of him put his paw on the reason why.

That is, until his classmate Marinette opened the door and started walking toward him, the smell of those cookies clinging to her as she came.

Oh, yeah. Her parents were bakers. This was her house.

His first reaction was to call her name. His next reaction, upon realizing he was still a cat and therefore incapable of speech, was to rub against her legs or something. But it turned out that he didn’t need to do anything, because as soon as she saw him, she smiled.

“Ooh, a black kitty cat,” she cooed, bending down and extending her hand toward him, for him to investigate.

Proper cat behavior. He was impressed. He sat down on the sidewalk and let her run her fingers over his new real cat ears.

“No collar,” she mused, “Are you a stray? You seem too nice to be a stray.”

Much to his own chagrin, Adrien meowed in reply. Okay, too real.

Marinette’s eyes widened suddenly, as if she just realized that it was January and cold outside and that she was talking to a cat, jacketless in the wind.

“You must be cold,” she said.

Adrien meowed again, resigned to his new mode of conversation.

Marinette glanced back at the bakery, “Mama and Papa won’t mind much if they don’t know.”

What did she mean? Adrien did not quite know. But all of sudden she had scooped him up and was hurrying through the crowded bakery, up a staircase, and into a bright, open apartment that also had that lingering cookie smell. 

He was released on a pink bedspread. Turning slowly, he could see that he was in a bedroom, and judging from the fact that it was indeed Marinette who had taken him, it was her bedroom. 

“I have a soft spot for black cats,” Marinette said conversationally, stroking down his back. 

The room was suddenly vibrating softly. Or…no…Adrien was purring. Why couldn’t he control these cat things?!

“Will you wreck the place if I go get you something to eat?” she asked him, smirking as she turned to go. 

Getting no answer (…because again, he was still a literal cat), she disappeared out the door. Adrien took her absence as a chance to explore his new surroundings. 

The room was decorated in soft pinks that matched Marinette’s tastes as far as he knew them. He didn’t know her very well, come to think of it. They were classmates, sure, but the girl couldn’t string two words together in front of him. He didn’t understand that very much. Usually he assumed it was because she liked fashion and he was a fashion designer’s son, but now…

But now.

But now he saw her room, and that meant her saw her computer screen. He sat on top of her desk, staring at the screen in awe. The desktop background was a collage of pictures of him, human him, with little pink hearts all around them. 

Marinette liked him. 

That made a lot more sense. If cats could sigh in relief, Adrien was sure he had just done it. That meant, at least, that she wouldn’t be mad about helping him if he could ever figure out how to communicate with her. Which would be easy, because he could hear her coming.

“Okay!” Marinette said, returning with a plate in each hand. 

She set them both down on her desk. One held a pile of sugar cookies. The other held a pile of tiny brown pellets that Adrien recognized with a sinking feeling as dry cat food. She expected him to eat that while she ate cookies. He turned himself around moodily, facing away from her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

He stared at the wall, willing himself to be catlike and cold until the warmth of her hand on the top of his head made him turn back. He leaned in toward the plate of cookies, and licked one of them, tasting cinnamon. Just as good as advertised.

She giggled, “Okay, Chat Noir, suit yourself.”

And at that, he jumped in surprise in a way that was very much human. She had decided that the proper course of action was to call him by his own name. Well, one of his names. What a grand coincidence. 

“You have to belong to somebody,” she said.

He stood at that, suddenly struck with inspiration, and rubbed against her computer screen. Maybe she would get the association. Adrien, cat, Adrien IS THE cat…didn’t seem like much of a stretch.

“Oh,” she said, tone laughing, and for a second he thought she actually understood.

“Yeah, that’s Adrien.”

Okay, not quite right.

“That’s Adrien,” she repeated, and then she sighed heavily and sat herself in her desk chair, staring at the photo collage. 

She looked sad. That wasn’t right. Adrien didn’t know Marinette too well, but they talked at school and did homework together. She was his friend. He hoped she didn’t think he was blowing her off. He just had no idea that she was such a massive romantic who loved him from afar and stared at his pictures. He wasn’t overly freaked about that, either. It was cuter than he expected. 

So he meowed and nudged her shoulder with his head. 

Marinette petted him absentmindedly. And it was nice. Between the petting and the warm house that smelled like sweets and the emotional overload, he was starting to feel very sleepy. 

Catnap.

Adrien hopped down from the desk lightly, and settled himself on her bed. His cat body folded in on itself in crazy ways, and when he was done, he had become a veritable cinnamon bun of cat, curled up on Marinette’s blankets. 

“You’ve probably had a long day, minou,” said Marinette, “I’ll check on you later.”

If cats could smile, Adrien would swear he had.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew what was supposed to happen when someone was possessed by a dark-magic butterfly. And turning completely and utterly into a real-life black cat was not exactly what he had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These chapters are shorter than I intended. That's okay though. More cliffhangers.

Living as a housepet with a nice family had its perks. When Adrien woke up from his nap, he found that the cookie scent had been overpowered by something even better. The whole place smelled like a roast, and garlic, and Adrien was ready to go have his share.

He descended the stairs, which was harder than he expected. His hind legs kept knocking into his front ones and threatening to send him tumbling down. 

So it was a welcome relief when Marinette appeared. 

“I was just going to see you,” she said, bending down to scoop Adrien into her arms, “I told Mama and Papa about you, and they’re letting you stay if I promise to put up posters tomorrow.”

Adrien didn’t think that course of action would help him much. Found cat, black, actually a teenage boy. 

She carried him into the kitchen, where a tiny Asian woman and a huge hulking man were laying a magnificent meal out on the table. But of course, she didn’t bring him to the table. She put him in the corner in front of a shallow dish of the same dry cat food. Perfect.

“You’re right, Marinette,” said the woman, who he could only assume was Marinette’s mother, “It’s a cute little cat.”

Compliment aside, Adrien wasn’t sure he liked being the cute little cat. 

“He hasn’t touched the food, though,” Marinette worried, looking down at where he stood, back to the food dish.

The huge man (Marinette’s father, obviously) laughed, “Cats are cats. It’ll eat.”

Well, then. Adrien would eat. He wove himself around the table legs, brushing up against Marinette’s ankles. She liked him, she would feed him something better. He was purring again. He wasn’t sure when that started, either.

“Stop it,” she whispered, almost breathed.

So he gently dug his claws into the leg of her jeans. 

“Minou!” she whispered, shocked. 

Adrien meowed his indignation. And it worked. Marinette took a big piece of that succulent roast off her plate and let him catch it between his teeth. 

Much better.

He spared a thought for his own appetite. This was so Plagg’s fault, the fixation on food. Adrien was supposed to be figuring out how to stop being a cat, and instead he was content to eat his fill and impose on Marinette. 

She didn’t seem to mind, though. After the meal (with several more food scraps sent his way) it was right back to her room, him following at her heels. Going upstairs was easier.

“I need to make the poster,” Marinette said, mostly to herself. 

Her desk was a mess of pens and drawings, and she shoved them all to the side to get to her keyboard. Adrien watched, tail twitching, as she typed up a form letter. 

“Found cat,” she read, “Black fur, green eyes, no collar. Responds to Chat Noir.”

She looked at him, smiling. He was sitting primly on the bed, feet perfectly tucked together, eyes blinking sleepily back at Marinette. There was something in her face as she watched him that made Adrien feel unexpectedly emotional. Affection?

“I need a picture,” she said, startling him, phone in hand.

Adrien wasn’t sure how to tell her that this was a waste of time, so he sat still and let her take a photo of him in full cat form. A few more minute of typing on her keyboard, and Marinette had a finished poster, which she showed him for his approval. 

When she closed the document, her computer screen returned to that collage of Adrien’s face. He wanted to smile. She didn’t hate him, she wasn’t afraid of him. Sweet, shy Marinette was only shy because she had a crush on him. 

He stretched as Marinette came to sit on the bed next to him. She propped herself up on the headboard, and pulled a sketchpad and a pack of pastel colored pencils into her lap. As if it was the most natural thing in the world, Adrien curled up next to her, head resting against her leg so that he could see the drawings. But they weren’t just drawings. 

They were design sketches. And they were beautiful. Dresses, suits, blouses, scarves of every color, carefully filled in with colored pencils and inks. They were things he could only dream of wearing for a stupid photoshoot.

Adrien wasn’t his father, didn’t know the first thing about design, but Marinette…Marinette was brilliant. 

And she was frowning at her work. 

“Needs something else,” she murmured, tapping her pencil on the thick paper, leaving little marks next to a dress that was spun with spring colors like a Monet painting.

If Adrien had been human, he would’ve told Marinette that her designs were perfect. He would’ve promised to convince his father to buy her designs and create those clothes that were already flowing off the page in their realness. He would’ve thanked her for helping him in this weird crisis and for liking Adrien Agreste just for being Adrien Agreste. 

But he was currently still just a cat, so he climbed up on her lap and settled down, purring. Hopefully she would get the message.

\----------

So Adrien may have fallen asleep again. He blamed that statistic that said cats required something like twenty hours of sleep a day. The room was warm and cozy, and Marinette was slowly petting between his ears. It was nice.

But when he woke up, she was gone. 

That was a little disappointing. He felt like they had finally been bonding. She was so nice all the time, and extra nice in private like this, when she thought she was just being silly in front of a stray cat. The peacefulness of her little home and little family were filling Adrien like a detox, allowing him to embrace the impawsible situation at hand.

Adrien’s peace, however, was disrupted when he felt a feeling that made him very nervous. He was not prepared for this part of being a cat. He was not going to use a litterbox, damn it. 

As it turned out, he didn’t need to worry about it. Something happened that figuratively (not literally! God, not literally!) scared the shit out of him.

Ladybug slid down the steps from the balcony. 

Like, his Ladybug. His crime fighting partner slash eternal crush. The first bizarre conclusion he jumped to was that she had somehow found out what happened to him and come to return him to human form. That might pose a problem if he turned back into Adrien rather than Chat Noir, but he could do damage control. After being a cat for a day, he could deal with anything.

Anything except Ladybug powering down from her transformation and leaving Marinette Dupain-Cheng standing there. 

No. No. No.

Marinette, his sweet new friend Marinette…was Ladybug?!

That wasn’t all though. Inconveniently enough, there was apparently a cure for his cat problem. It was shock. 

Because the terror and confusion he felt was nothing compared to the look on Marinette’s face when her new cat transformed into Adrien Agreste.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew what was supposed to happen when someone was possessed by a dark-magic butterfly. And turning completely and utterly into a real-life black cat was not exactly what he had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know when I skipped my twenties and thirties and turned into an overenthusiastic soccer mom with a protein-shake shaker bottle full of margarita mix and a velvet Juicy Couture tracksuit who wants to load her minivan with idiot fictional kids and drive to the Grand Canyon, but I did it.
> 
> IMPORTANT: There is only one more chapter to this one. If y'all would like more fic by me, check out my other ML fic "Sleeping In". It's also cute and it has a sequel on the way :)

Marinette was Ladybug. 

Marinette, the shy girl who sat behind him in class and pasted her computer with his pictures and all but adopted him earlier that afternoon, was his lady. His Ladybug. Oh, God, he was in love with Marinette.

That was…huge. Overwhelming. He had found her. And not only was his Ladybug someone he knew, she was someone he liked. Someone who liked him. So he just stared at her, mouth gaping, as the now-white akuma butterfly fluttered around his head. 

And then he noticed that her big blue eyes, those familiar, familiar big blue eyes – _how had he not known?!_ – were full of tears. Oh no, oh no, what had he done?

“No no no no,” he said hurriedly, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t…I -”

“STOP!” Marinette said. 

Okay, she shouted it. He didn’t blame her. 

“Marinette, I am so sorry,” he repeated. 

She started pacing, “You were a cat. You’re Adrien, and you were a cat.”

“It’s a long story, I-”

“You slept on my _bed_ ,” she interrupted, looking horrified.

Adrien took a deep breath and tried again, “Yeah, I just-”

“You saw my computer. Oh God, I rambled to you for hours,” Marinette said, voice steadily increasing to a panicked screech, “Adrien, I didn’t – I’m not – the Ladybug thing, I can explain-”

“MARINETTE!” he said, finally, “Marinette, calm down, it’s fine.”

There were tears streaming down her cheeks now, “If you tell anyone about this, Adrien, I’ll…”

He looked at her. What? What was she talking about? Why would he do that?

“Marinette, you don’t understand-”

“You should go now.”

She went to the door and opened it, pointing down. Adrien was bewildered. If she would just give him a chance to explain, it would all be okay.

“My parents are asleep. Be quiet, please,” she instructed quietly. 

“But-”

“Goodnight, Adrien.”

\----------

Well, that was awful. 

He had always imagined that meeting Ladybug in her civilian form would be a little more romantic and dashing and a little less traumatizing. But he was a bad luck cat through and through. Speaking of cats…

“Plagg!” he thundered, voice echoing off the darkened buildings of Marinette’s neighborhood. 

The kwami zoomed out of its usual hiding place in Adrien’s pocket and looked at him sheepishly.

“Did you miss me?”

Adrien glared at his kwami, “How did all that happen?”

“I was trying to help you,” Plagg said, crossing his tiny arms, “Jeez, you do a guy a favor…”

“I was a _cat_!”

“Yeah, I guess we’ve learned what happens when you mix kwami and akuma, haven’t we?”

Adrien was livid, “Am I always going to be a cat now?!”

“No, stupid, that was definitely an accident. Your emotional overload zapped you back. No cat feels emotions that strong. It was a one-time deal.”

“It was awful, that’s what it was,” Adrien grumbled.

“But you met your lady, didn’t you?”

“And she threw me out!”

Plagg rolled his eyes, “So you try again.”

“How?” Adrien asked.

He saw no way that this could be fixed. His friendship with Marinette, however small, his partnership with Ladybug, the biggest thing in his life, both ruined. It was all gone in one fell swoop. But what Plagg said next was like the sun coming out on a rainy day.

“She doesn’t know you’re Chat Noir.”

\----------

Adrien decided to wait until the next night to go back to see Marinette. He figured that she was still a wreck, beating herself up for being so candid with him. Honestly, the girl had far too many questions about why Adrien was in her room and far too FEW questions about why Adrien was a CAT. 

She was embarrassed, he realized. She saw him as just her poor akumatized classmate Adrien who talked to her about math tests and essays and…was apparently the object of her undying affections.

But it was so much more complicated than that now. Adrien spent the entire day trying to reconcile his memories and feelings for Ladybug with Marinette. It wasn’t that he was disappointed. Disappointed was entirely the wrong word. 

Excited, yes. Scared, yes. But not disappointed. 

Really, he worried about what would happen when – if – he showed her that he was Chat Noir. She didn’t like Chat Noir. She rejected him constantly as Ladybug. What if that side won out over her feelings for the regular Adrien?

“Plagg, I don’t think this is a good idea,” Adrien said doubtfully. 

He was about to transform, but the raging argument in his head was putting a damper on things. 

“She likes Adrien. She likes Chat Noir. What’s wrong?” the kwami replied. 

“She’s mad at me now.”

“You’re over-exaggerating.”

“I made her cry just by existing yesterday! I don’t want to make things worse!”

Plagg hovered right in front of Adrien’s face, “No, you’re just a scaredy cat.” 

He was right, too. Adrien was petrified that he was about to drive Ladybug away forever. Obviously that scared him, Jesus, did it scare him. Well, he was sorry that he wasn’t ready to lose his best friend because her alter ego happened to have a massive crush on his alter ego. 

“Let’s do this,” Adrien said, finally, “Transformer-moi.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He knew what was supposed to happen when someone was possessed by a dark-magic butterfly. And turning completely and utterly into a real-life black cat was not exactly what he had expected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thursdays are my favorite days of the week, so here's the finale to this little fic.

As Adrien leapt and rolled over the Paris rooftops, he thought about the last time he visited Marinette as Chat Noir. It was when the Dessinateur was after her, and Ladybug…wow. So Marinette sent him to watch after herself. She probably had a good laugh about that afterwards. 

It didn’t sink it until that moment how much everything was going to change. 

But it was okay. Adrien found himself grinning as he landed lightly on the narrow ledge outside one of Marinette’s sprawling bedroom windows. Feeling a lot like a character in a dumb teenage romcom, he knocked on the glass. He could just make out her outline sitting up in bed, tensed, her features illuminated in a faint pinkish light from a tiny red speck flying past her head. Oh, God, that was her kwami. 

He could only imagine how dramatic he looked when she spotted him outside her window, the lights of Paris behind him as he clung to her window. 

Marinette’s face relaxed when she saw him, and when she pointed upward to indicate they should meet on the balcony, she was almost smiling. That was a little confusing. 

Only, no, it wasn’t, because Marinette had no idea he was Adrien. Right.

He climbed up to the balcony just as she swung the trapdoor shut behind her. She was definitely smiling now, and Adrien had a sinking feeling that he was about to ruin that.

“It’s a little late for housecalls, isn’t it, Chat Noir?” Marinette teased, leaning back against the railing.

“For you, my lady, time stands still,” he replied, the words tumbling out as if Chat Noir was running on autopilot.

Marinette giggled, “Fair enough. What brings you here, then?”

He noted numbly that she had wrapped her arms around herself. It was pretty chilly out. And while her pink polka-dot pajamas were cute, they didn’t look warm. He’d better hurry this up.

“You look happy to see me,” he observed. 

“It’s good to see a familiar face,” she said, and he knew she was speaking as both Marinette and Ladybug. 

Adrien was not ready for this.

“Marinette,” he said, and because saying her name made him feel inexplicably better, he did it again, “Marinette.”

“Yes?”

Adrien’s hands were shaking, “I’ve heard you have a soft spot for black cats.”

“Oh? When did I say that?” she inquired, raising one eyebrow.

She was still smiling at him. That was good. 

So he grabbed his Miraculous ring and twisted it nervously, a secret signal to Plagg that it was time. And the Chat Noir outfit melted away to reveal a very terrified Adrien, grinning weakly even as he felt like he was about to die.

Marinette’s hands had flown up to cover her mouth in shock. She was trembling; he could see even the tips of her pigtails quivering. 

Oh no. 

And then she started making noise, and Adrien was dead sure she was crying. But he was wrong. She was laughing. 

Roaring, actually. She was wheezing and grasping at her sides like she was trying to physically hold herself together. Okay. This was not actually much better than crying. Adrien had no idea what to do, so he just kind of stood there. 

“Marinette?” he repeated.

“Adrien.”

Her voice was full of wonder and disbelief. And laughter. 

“Yes,” he agreed.

Marinette came closer to him, “You’re Chat Noir.”

“Yes.”

“Literally.”

“I guess so.”

“Is there any particular reason you were a cat yesterday?” she asked.

She was so unconcerned. He was almost scared of that.

“Akuma,” he offered weakly.

“Ah.”

Adrien ran a hand through his hair nervously, fingers ghosting over the places where his Chat Noir ears appeared. He wished he could keep wearing them for courage.

“Look, Marinette, I understand if-”

“Do you know how unbelievable this is?” she wondered aloud.

“I think I do.”

“No you don’t.”

Marinette’s face was blushing, and Adrien couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment or anger. Probably some of both. 

“Adrien, how could we not know?”

He shrugged, “Beats me.”

“This is…too much,” Marinette said.

Her arms were back around herself, making her look smaller, shying away from him. Normally this much of an emotional rollercoaster would be giving Adrien whiplash, but he understood it this time. He was on a similar ride. 

“I can go,” he offered, hand back on his ring, ready to suit up and run as fast as his legs could take him.

“No! No,” Marinette said, hands flying up in a gesture to stop, “I just…ugh! Adrien! All this time, it’s been you. And I had no idea. No idea! I’ve been in love with you since I met you-”

“And I’ve been in love with you since I met you,” he said, chin up, indignant, “Ladybug.”

That stopped her. She froze on the spot, eyes twinkling at Adrien, mouth a little agape. 

“Marinette, if you had ever let me get to know you like I know Ladybug…if we’d been paying more attention…if I had known everything I learned yesterday before…” Adrien was grasping at straws. 

“What?” Marinette asked, settling her hands on her hips.

Adrien looked at her, taking slow steps closer to her. Marinette. Rumpled pajamas and messy pigtails. The pictures of him on her computer. The designs in her sketchbook. Scraps from the dinner table. And other things, too. Long nights on the rooftops of their city. Fighting perfectly in sync, like he was her shadow. Those little earrings that became her Miraculous, turned her into his Ladybug. Marinette. Ladybug. Miraculous.

“I would’ve done this.”

He kissed her. And, surprise surprise, she kissed him back. 

One of Adrien’s hands had settled at the small of her back, the other cupping her face, one fingertip brushing her earring, thanking his lucky stars that he knew its secret now. 

“Oh.” 

Marinette’s voice was small as Adrien looked down at her. Her hands were both knotted into the fabric of his shirt, clinging like she had been waiting for that moment, that confession, that kiss, for ages. 

She had, Adrien realized. And so had he. 

“This has turned out to be quite the purrfect ending, wouldn’t you agree, my lady?” Adrien smirked.

Marinette rolled her eyes, “Unbelievable.”

She pulled him back down for another kiss, and she was smiling against his lips as he held her close on that balcony, Paris spread out below them in glittering lights.

Excellent experience overall, being a cat. And he even got to make puns.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU BABIES!! The love this fic has received warms my little heart. Your kudos and comments mean everything to me. Please, don't hesitate to check out my other Miraculous Ladybug works, I have a whole list of prompts and ideas for more. Love you so much!


End file.
